A young trans woman's views on politics, media, and whatever else strikes her fancy, including speaking in the third person.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

First Impressions ~ Mass Effect 3

Ok, so, wow. I probably should not stay up late playing video games the night before driving to my hometown and back and then going to a party... But OMD, so totally worth it!

I finally finished the DLC for Mass Effect 2 last night, and I must say I'm happy with how they tied everything together. Arrival was very dark, and I can imagine it will have some interesting ramifications on Shepard's mission in ME3. It was about midnight at this point and I really probably should have just gone to bed, but that shiny metal case was calling to me...

So. Mass Effect 3, the first few hours.

Although the events of Arrival directly impact the beginning of ME3, the game starts a couple of months later. Shepard is in a detention facility on Earth, when suddenly James shows up! Yeah I have no idea who this guy is, but he looks like an extra from Gears of War. Shepard recognizes him though. Anyway, a few things happen, everyone except Shepard gets promoted (well... That was before the game actually started), Shepard yells at the security council, then the Reapers show up and everything goes to hell.

That previous bit actually serves as the tutorial for the game. Amid buildings explodding and ships falling out of the sky like chocolate rain, the game provides helpful hints on things that have changed or that you might just not remember from the first. One thing I noticed right away is that the controls are a lot more smooth, though Shepard still has the annoying tendency to sometimes start moving left for no reason while under cover.

After reluctantly leaving Earth in search of help and/or a weapon to use against the Reapers, our intrepid heroine and her compatriots head to the Prothean archive on Mars, where they encounter a certain adorable blue alien, and a whole lot of trouble...